Minnesota Vikings Owners Done Spending on Roster
As expected, we are learning quite a bit about the Minnesota Vikings and their plans for the 2026 NFL offseason, while the entire league is gathered down in Indianapolis for the scouting combine.
There are a lot of conflicting QB reports, but it appears the Vikings are trying to find short-term veteran competition for next season, while also retaining the believe that JJ McCarthy will still develop into the franchise QB they thought him to be when selecting the 2023 National Champion No. 10 overall in the 2024 draft.
While quarterback is obviously the main Vikings talker down in Indianapolis this week, there’s also plenty of steam surrounding the major change in Minnesota’s free agent budget this offseason too.
As you may have heard by now, the Vikings need to clear about $40 million in player salary off the 2026 books, in order to get under the NFL salary cap for next season. That’s the most of any team in the NFL.
Of course, those numbers can be easily manipulated with contract restructures, IF team ownership is willing to spend cash now and commit more future money down the road, a practice the Wilfs have historically been happy to do, since buying the team two decades ago.
Wilfs close Minnesota Vikings roster ATM…
However, after spending more cash ($346 million) than every other team in football last year, outside of the Jacksonville Jaguars, it sounds like the Wilf ATM has officially dried up, and thus, is closed for 2026.
According to Matthew Coller and Ben Goessling (Star Tribune) on the latest Purple Insider podcast episode, it doesn’t seem like interim executive in charge, Rob Brzezinski, is interested in restructuring a bunch of contracts so the Vikings can dip way below the cap, then spend more money to bring in new talent.
According to what @BenGoessling and @MatthewColler have gathered at the combine, they get the feeling the Wilfs' ATM is CLOSED to the Vikings this offseason…
— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) February 26, 2026
Coller: "I did not get the sense yesterday that the cap guy [Rob Brzezinski] wants to push a lot more money down the… pic.twitter.com/rLUCjlO15R
Coller: “I did not get the sense yesterday that the cap guy [Rob Brzezinski] wants to push a lot more money down the road…which then leads to this interpretation, that they are going into this free agency with a thought of being as shrewd as they possibly can.
That doesn’t mean don’t fill needs. It means that if you are looking at your top 25 free agents list on whatever website dot net, you’re not finding future Minnesota Vikings”
Goessling: “Yeah, I would agree with that. And he talked about, when you push money down the road it’s going to have to get paid eventually, which is true. The thing with that, is that the cap keeps going up because the TV deals keep injecting more money into the league every year.
But the other piece we need to consider here is the amount of cash that is spent on a roster. You can push all of it down the road. You can restructure to get under the cap…the Wilfs spend a lot of money on the team, and they make a lot of money. They’re business isn’t in the red. They’re also not running a vending machine.”
“[Rob has talked about how the Wilfs] will spend cash over cap being a competitive advantage…but everyone has a limit to that. I don’t think they’re saying ‘we’re going to pull back’, but they are saying, ‘okay, we spent a lot of money and this didn’t really work out so now you have to recoup some trust here.”
Purple Insider Podcast
Related: MN Vikings Admit Their Timeline is Not Aligned w/JJ McCarthy
This is really the first time that I can remember that the Minnesota Vikings, under Wilf ownership, have been openly trying to evade spending cash in the offseason, which says a lot about how they view the sunk cost they put into the roster last season, and throughout Kevin O’Connell’s entire tenure.
Even rich billionaires have a limit… unless you own the Mets or Dodgers, apparently. And it appears the Vikings’ ownership group has reached that limit. And that begs to question, what are they going to be willing to spend in free agency to improve the roster.
More insiders confirm, Vikings “are out of money”
While Matt and Ben partially answered that question during their podcast from the combine, local sports insider, Darren Wolfson (KSTP) confirmed as much while doing his bi-weekly hit with SKOR North on Thursday.
At the very end of the episode, Wolfson received a text message from an NFL agent that he read on-air — “Hey, I’m not breaking news to you, but [the Vikings] are out of money, which you already knew…”
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